It is known that various medical conditions or pathologies are characterized by the generation of heat. Such is, for instance, the case with a tumor or a cyst whose site is at a temperature substantially above the average skin temperature.
The traditional method of obtaining a medical thermograph has been simply to juxtapose a heat-sensitive film with the body area in question, thereby obtaining upon development a picture showing the temperature variations in the region.
In yet another system infrared radiation emitted by the region in question is registered on film or picked up by a television-type camera so as to give a visual representation of the region showing the temperature variation.
All of these systems have substantial disadvantages. First of all it is almost impossible to obtain an accuracy of greater than 0.1.degree.C, and with many systems it is impossible to obtain a precision of greater than 1.degree.C.
In addition the known medical thermographic arrangements are extremely expensive and give results which are only nominally usable, a classic example is that a local region having a high blood vessel density is frequently recorded as if it were a tumor or the like, so that subsequent examination is necessary to obtain a meaningful diagnosis.
The principal disadvantage of all of the prior-arts thermographic systems is that they cannot be effectively analyzed, since the information is generally in the form of various black and white or color intensities, even with an optical densitometer. An expert is required to study the thermograph and give a subjective analysis thereof. There is no possibility of categorizing and objectively measuring the information obtained.